Date:         Sun, 2 Oct 94 11:22:46 EDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         John Pinkham <John.Pinkham@lambada.oit.unc.edu>
Subject:      '91 Camper Comments

Took our '91 Camper out for our first camping trip since
buying it in November. First for some peeves:
1. Its power is marginal. Some of the mountain climbs near
Trail B.C. slowed it down to 40 mph. Petal to the metal, lots of
buzzy downshifting by the automatic transmission. On gradual slopes
it usually could stay up to 55 mph.
2. The air conditioning is sub-marginal. Cold air on the back of the neck,
no air to the face. 
3. The water fill cover used a plastic key which broke off on first use.
More water ends up on the ground than in the tank when filling with
a hose.
4. The sink drain usually didn't. I used a collapsible plastic drain
bag. Probably need to use a vented bucket.
5. Miss the gas heater we had on our '78.
6. Interior lighting is pathetic.

Some nice things about it:
1.  Good looking rig
2.  Smooth cruiser on semi-level terrain
3.  Power door locks make frequent roadside stops very easy.
4.  Nice headlighting. Especially high beams.
5.  Refrigerator works well, especially on propane.
6.  Seats are pretty comfortable.
7.  Low oil consumption

Perhaps the manual transmission models are better hill climbers.
There were many moments that I wished that VW offered the
turbo-diesel in North America.

P.S.  Late September is a wonderful time to visit
the Canadian Rockies. Most of the tourist hordes are gone.
We still ran into Japanese mega-tourism though.

John Pinkham
John.Pinkham@lambada.oit.unc.edu